Preview | Queens Park Rangers v Swansea City
Swansea City will look to make an instant return to winning ways as they travel to London to take on Queens Park Rangers at the MATRADE Loftus Road Stadium on Saturday afternoon (3pm).
Vitor Matos' side sit second in the Championship table, having narrowly lost to West Ham United a week ago on home turf.
Queens Park Rangers have lost just once at home this campaign, but fell to defeat against Birmingham City last time out at St. Andrew's. The R's enter the weekend sitting ninth in the division.
Team news
Swansea City head coach Vitor Matos has confirmed Ronald is set to be sidelined for six to eight weeks after suffering a hamstring injury.
The winger picked up the injury during last weekend’s defeat to West Ham United, having been deployed at right-back against the Hammers.
After assessing the issue this week, Matos confirmed his side will be without the Brazilian for a spell.
Josh Key has also returned to parts of team training as he continues his recovery from a hamstring injury, although he will not be available for Saturday’s trip to Queens Park Rangers.
Filip Lissah will return from suspension.
Pre-match views
Vitor Matos: “The training sessions have been really good and really intense.
“It was important for us because it had been a long time since we had the whole group together with time to train, because of the international break.
“It was important for us to go back to the basics and back to the important things for us to have consistency, and they did that really well.
“I think we handled it in the best way we could, which is by training hard and working hard.”
“Queens Park Rangers, as we all see in terms of stats, are one of the best teams in the league offensively,” he added.
“They’re really well organised defensively. They have used two different shapes already this season, so they’re really competitive at their stadium, which is also where they are really consistent.
“We expect a good game where we need to do a lot of things right and be concentrated in every action. I think it will be a game that will need the full 90 minutes to be decided.”
Julien Stephan: “It’s a question of how you deal with things at the source.
“With the forward players they have you don’t want to allow them the time to deliver balls into the box.
“If you decide to be aggressive and put a lot of pressure on them, you can leave space in the midfield.
“So, we will decide what is the right approach but it is always about stopping things at the source.”
Meet the officials
Samuel Allison will be the man in the middle for Swansea City’s trip to Queens Park Rangers this afternoon (3pm).
Today’s fixture will be the 10th time Allison, a former firefighter, has taken charge of a Swans game, and his first involving Swansea this season.
His most recent Swansea appointment came back in April of last season, when he officiated the Swans’ trip to Leicester City at the King Power Stadium.
Allison will be assisted by Daniel Leach and Matthew Gunn-Smith, while Sunny Singh Gill will serve as the fourth official.
Remember the last time?
Queens Park Rangers 1 Swansea City 2
Swansea City recorded back-to-back away wins for the first time this season as Ronald’s early strike and a Zan Vipotnik penalty proved enough to seal three points against Queens Park Rangers at MATRADE Loftus Road.
The Brazilian fired home what proved to be the winner in just the second minute, after Jay Fulton’s pass had found its way between two covering defenders.
Swansea were rarely troubled aside from one first-half Isaac Hayden effort, with their pressing work without the ball forcing their hosts into countless errors.
Leo Walta, Adam Idah, Josh Tymon and Liam Cullen were all denied opportunities to extend the lead, but Vipotnik would seal the win with a penalty – after Jisung Eom was adjudged to have been fouled in the area – as the Slovenian netted his 24th goal of the season.
Rhys Norrington-Davies pulled a goal back for the hosts in the final seconds of the 90 minutes, but the Swans saw the game out.
Swansea City: Lawrence Vigouroux; Sam Parker (Joel Ward 73), Ben Cabango (captain), Cameron Burgess, Josh Tymon; Jay Fulton, Goncalo Franco (Jisung Eom 66), Leo Walta (Malick Yalcouye 66); Ronald, Melker Widell (Liam Cullen 76), Adam Idah (Zan Vipotnik 66).
Unused Substitutes: Andy Fisher, Marko Stamenic, Gustavo Nunes, Liam Cullen, Thomas Woodward.
Prime numbers
3 - Swansea City have won three of their past four league games against QPR (L1), as many victories as across their prior 11 meetings (D4 L4).
6 - Swansea have won six of their past eight league games on the road (D1 L1) and could win three in a row for the first time since October 2023.
7 - QPR have failed to win any of their previous seven home league games against Swansea City (D3 L4), since a 4-0 victory in April 2019.